Hi, I’m Emi. I’m new.
New to blogging, new to the workforce, new to The Third Teacher+ team and I’m
here to keep it fresh.

There are a number of things that I give a damn about,
mainly related to learning to learn, designing educational environments, and
visualizing information. I’m interested in how to remain adaptable as a
thinker, designer, and most recently, an employee.

Each week I hope to contribute a sketch perspective
(literally!) on present challenges, themes, and ideas in design and education.

To start it off, I’m including the first draft icons of our
services, which elicited a rich discussion on the metaphors we use to describe
our design process. I hope that in the
coming months, you can help us by giving feedback on what themes resonate with
you, what needs more clarification, and where you’d like to see us grow!

As
we at The Third Teacher+ structure our designs to be as human-centered
as possible, we identify the student behaviors that our design should
enable, if done correctly. Paul Tough illuminates research that can help
schools design their human-centered organization. Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification
by psychologists Martin Seligman
and Christopher Peterson
classifies and measures widely valued positive traits. This resource can
serve as a glossary and menu of options for schools to choose their
behavior goals. KIPP uses seven of them:
grit, self control, zest, social Intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and
curiosity.

While
the authors frame their traits as universal and objective -
intellectual rather than moral - I would argue that each community is
different. There’s a great community-building opportunity in defining a
school’s specific, personal set of goals. An ethnographic fieldwork
process can gather the perspectives of students, parents, teachers and
administrators to identify the community’s shared values and facilitate
consensus-building conversations.

Imagine
a strategic planning session that explores: Who are our students and
who do we want them to become? What psychological, emotional, academic
and spatial pathways must we construct to get them there? How do we
align and deploy our organization to accomplish these goals?

And
imagine an evaluation session that asks: Are our students practicing
the behaviors and traits we laid out? Are they practicing them more
frequently than last year?

It’s
exciting to think of how research can empower a behavior-based
organizational strategy and value-based definition of success.

There’s
another way of viewing our education crisis: it’s a culture crisis. How
many schools have taken a mirror and clearly articulated the shared
values that unite their community, how they define success in a graduate
(in terms of mindset, not test scores) and how they specifically
approach learning? Let’s consider each school to be the community
center that it is. We need to bring administrators, teachers, parents
and students together to co-create their culture and value set. This
will give them the clarity and purpose for their pedagogy that is
necessary to move forward with unified pride and confidence.

Paul Tough describes KIPP’s attention to culture to give students an identity and sense of belonging.

Psychologist,
Angela Duckworth explains:

“KIPP’s approach to group
identity is a central part of what makes the schools effective: ‘What
KIPP does is create a social role shift, so that a child will suddenly
switch into a totally different mindset.’”

Cultural
values are stated both explicitly with messaging posted everywhere and
implicitly, woven into the DNA of how the school functions. This ethos
and set of mantras help communicate a positive and opportunistic
message: that intelligence is malleable and success is achievable for
all.

We
all need something to believe in. Culture doesn’t mean religiosity or
exclusivity. It means finding a story that gives us motivation and a
clear way to feel successful.

What kind of thinkers do we want our children to be?

How can we best equip them to succeed?

These burning questions that guide our practice are the subject of Paul Tough’s book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character.
A journalist, Tough combines his school and program studies with
leading education research. Focusing on the collaboration between KIPP,
Riverdale Country School and researchers Marty Seligman and Angela
Duckworth, the book offers fantastic insight into how research and
practice can join forces to create powerful impact. I started reading the book over the holidays and will be writing reflections throughout the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Every day we work to gather and share the stories of learning communities. And every day we work to develop our practice, and model our own learning ecology. Our new blog is the centerpiece of our evolving practice– as individuals and as The Third Teacher+ team. It acts as a place for us–a virtual sandbox for playing with and diving deeper into ideas. It allows us to share our reflective practice through our experiences, connections, and research.

Simple ingredients: Stories, questions, learning, & design

The adventure is just beginning, but we look forward to our blog being a place where we...

Share stories

People are storytellers–– we process, share, learn, and love through stories. Come and visit to find stories from the road, the studio, our friends, our clients, the world, and of the future.

Ask questions.

Our work is centered on inquiry – a curious disposition, rich questions, and reframed assumptions. Whether it is asking "how might we…" alongside our clients or setting the table for rich conversation, this blog will illuminate the questions we are pondering in our practice and of the world around us.

Celebrate learning.

Yes, our clients are learning communities, but so are we –– as individuals and as a studio. Come peek into our learning and reflections in action– from our practice, research, and network.

Illuminate design.

Perhaps it goes without saying, we believe design is powerful. This blog will dive deeper into how the design mindset, design process, and physical design can be transformative for communities and organizations.

Join us.

Over the weeks and months, as you peek into our studio, bookshelves, minds, conversations, and experiences, we hope you’ll join us. Feel free to share your thoughts here and, as always, you can connect with us on twitter, facebook, instagram.